Abstract: Since the signing of Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) in 1994, intellectual property protection has been receiving more and more attentions from countries around the world. The role of intellectual property protection in international trade is also gradually becoming prominent with the development of the trade. By making use of the HS-6 digit trade data of China’s export to 69 countries and regions from 2005 to 2013, this paper divides China’s total volume of export into extensive margin, price margin and quantity margin. Based on the decomposition, it analyses both theoretically and empirically the impact of intellectual property rights protection on the ternary margins of China’s exports. Then it is found that intellectual property protection has a promoting effect on the extensive margin and the quantity margin of China’s exports, but no significant influence on the price margin.

Key words: intellectual property; ternary margins; export trade